1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an interconnection apparatus and method using terahertz waves and, more particularly, to an interconnection apparatus and method using terahertz waves, which generate terahertz waves using photomixing and transmit/receive the terahertz waves.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the number of fields in which terahertz waves are used has rapidly increased, and such fields include medical treatment, medicine, agriculture and food, environment measurement, biology, communication, non-destructive investigation, and advanced material evaluation. Among these fields, a terahertz communication field for processing efficient data traffic has come to the fore.
Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2012-0065808 relates to a terahertz wave generator for generating and detecting a terahertz wave. This patent discloses a dual-mode semiconductor laser device configured to generate laser light having at least two wavelengths and beat and output the generated laser light, and a photomixer formed on the same chip on which the dual-mode semiconductor laser device is formed and configured to be excited by the beaten laser light and then generate a continuous terahertz wave.
However, the conventional terahertz wave generator for generating and detecting the terahertz wave does not present detailed technology related to configuration which transmits/receives terahertz waves while adjusting a speed according to the number of frequency blocks by modularizing terahertz wave generation units and terahertz wave detection units in frequency blocks in correspondence with the channels of a frequency band including a single center frequency. Further, the conventional technology is problematic in that, as the number of frequency blocks increases, a required frequency bandwidth also increases. In spite of this problem, the conventional technology does not describe configuration which transmits/receives terahertz waves while reducing a frequency bandwidth by arranging frequency blocks corresponding to the respective channels of the same frequency band so that they do not neighbor each other.
Therefore, new interconnection technology using terahertz waves are urgently required which can generate terahertz waves even if an expensive femtosecond laser required by a Terahertz (THz)-Time Domain Spectroscopy (TDS) system is not used, by using photomixing upon generating terahertz waves, can adjust a speed according to the number of frequency blocks by modularizing terahertz wave generation units and terahertz wave detection units in frequency blocks in correspondence with the channels of a frequency band including a single center frequency, can reduce crosstalk between channels by changing oscillation wavelengths of exciting light sources and by performing photomixing upon generating the terahertz waves, can reduce crosstalk between frequency blocks by utilizing a narrow-band filter and a terahertz passive filter, can reduce a frequency bandwidth by arranging frequency blocks corresponding to the respective channels of the same frequency band so that they do not neighbor each other because of the problem of a required frequency bandwidth increasing as the number of frequency blocks increases, and can realize duplexing by simultaneously transmitting a transmission terahertz wave and receiving a reception terahertz wave.